All the passages below are taken from
Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ book “Expository Sermons on 2 Peter.” The sermons
were preached at Westminister Chapel, London, from October 1946 to March 1947.
It was originally printed in 1948-1950. The current publication is in 1999.

`For if these things be in you, and
abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind,
and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old
sins. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the
everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.' (2 Peter 1:8,9,11)

In these verses we have a continuation of
the exhortation in verses 5, 6 and 7 which the Apostle had addressed to the
Christians to whom he was writing.

The central exhortation is this---`Beside
this,' he says, `giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to
virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and
to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly
kindness charity.' That is the exhortation and then he adds the verses which
we are now considering. In other words, what the Apostle does here is to
supply reasons and inducements to help these Christian people to put into
practice his exhortation with respect to furnishing their faith with those other
graces; for he has shown that one effect and result of doing that would be that
they would make their calling and election sure. Not only would they be
saved, they would know that they were saved; and they would have a joy and
assurance in the happiness and the certainty of that knowledge of God as Father,
and of their relationship to Him in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

But now I am anxious to consider with you
these further reasons, the further inducements, which are put forward
by the Apostle in his attempt to persuade the Christians to furnish out their
faith with these other graces. The appeal made here by the Apostle is
something which is very typical and characteristic of the New Testament teaching
everywhere with respect to holiness and sanctification. There are two general
comments which one can make immediately with respect to it, because it is so
characteristic of the New Testament method. The first is that the New Testament
appeal for holiness is never in terms of a law. The New Testament never comes to
us presenting us with a law; it never comes to us merely dictating to us that we
ought to do this and we ought not to do that. It does not deal with us as
children in that sense. It does not, as it were, insult us by putting us under a
rigid law; and anyone who has a view of holiness which is in that sense
legalistic has departed from the essential teaching of the New Testament. That
is not the way in which the New Testament teaches holiness. It puts it rather as
an appeal to our reason, as an appeal to our understanding. The New Testament
presents it in this kind of way, as if to say, if you claim you have believed
certain things, if you really mean what you say, don't you see it follows
inevitably and of necessity that you ought to do certain things? In other words,
the New Testament, in its appeal for holiness, is always reasonable and
rational. You claim, it says, that you believe certain things; you claim that
you have become a certain type of person; very well, follow out your own logic,
put into practice and apply what you yourselves really claim to believe. Of
course, if you do not claim to believe, there is no appeal; but if you do claim
to believe, well then, says the New Testament, be reasonable. You believe
that you are the sons of God, `partakers of the divine nature', therefore,
because of it, don't you see that it is inevitable you should of necessity
furnish your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, etc.? The New
Testament makes holiness the most reasonable and commonsense thing imaginable,
and its whole case with respect to those who are not concerned about holiness is
that they are utterly unreasonable and self-contradictory.

That brings me to my second comment,
which is that according to the New Testament itself there is nothing which is so
utterly unreasonable and illogical as a professing Christian who objects to the
New Testament call to holiness. It savours of something that is completely
illogical. Now the New Testament is not at all surprised that people who do not
claim to be Christian object to this standard. The New Testament is not at all
surprised that men and women outside the church are not interested in these
things, or that they should regard the Christian life as something which spoils
and ruins life, and makes life really something utterly hateful. The New
Testament is not surprised that the people outside speak like that. It expects
them to take that view of itself and its teaching. It does not expect the
non-Christian to like it, indeed it expects to arouse antagonism. Some of you
may recall the advice that Martin Luther gave to his friend Philip Melanchthon
when he was setting out on his career. `Always preach,' said Luther, `in such a
way that if the people listening do not come to hate their sin, they will
instead hate you.' The non-Christian of necessity regards the Christian way of
life, and the holiness that is taught in the New Testament, as something utterly
distasteful, something narrow. He regards it as an impossible standard. But,
says the New Testament, if a Christian feels like that about it, well then he is
just contradicting himself. He calls himself a Christian and claims to believe
certain things; and yet he feels that its demands are too great and too
stringent, and says that they make life impossible. Now that, according to Peter
in these verses, and according to the New Testament everywhere, is to be utterly
illogical and unreasonable, and to put ourselves in a hopeless and
self-contradictory position. There is no better test of whether we are truly
Christian or not, than our reaction to this exhortation of the Apostle. How do I
feel when I face this exhortation, to add to my faith virtue, etc.? How do I
feel when I face the call to deny myself and take up the cross and follow
Christ? Is it against the grain? Do I feel opposed to it, do I dislike it, is it
objectionable to me? I say my reaction to these questions proclaims exactly
where I stand; and ultimately one of the tests as to whether my profession is of
any real value or not, is my response to this New Testament appeal. That is the
argument which Peter works out here in detail, and he puts it in this way.

There are three main reasons
why we should all want to give this diligence to making our calling and election
sure, why we all should be straining every nerve to furnish our faith with
these other qualities. Two of the reasons are positive and the other is negative.
Peter puts a positive argument first, then the negative one in the middle, and
then ends with a positive argument. But perhaps it will be more convenient for
us, and for our memories, if we start with the negative and then go on to the
two positives.

The negative reason for furnishing our
faith with virtue and knowledge, and so on, is given in verse 9. Put in the
form of a principle, it states that not to add to our faith virtue, and so on,
is to display an ignorance of the fundamental purpose of the Christian life.
This is how Peter puts it---`He that lacketh these things is blind, and
cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.'
So that a man who is not concerned about making his calling and election
sure, who is not concerned about pressing on to holiness, and fitting out his
faith in all these ways, is a man who, according to the Bible, is ignorant of
the fundamental purpose of the Christian life. Peter says in the first
instance that he is short-sighted---'he that lacketh these things is blind, and
cannot see afar off'. He is a man who cannot see distant things; he is a
short-sighted man; he is a man who only sees that which is immediately in front
of him. He does not see the distant scene; he is a man who is only concerned
about the temporal and the present. He is a man who wants to enjoy life here and
now, and forgets the other life that is to come. He is a man who sees so much of
the world round about him, and its glittering prizes, and its so-called
happiness and joy and everything for which the world lives, that he sees nothing
else. He sees that which is right in front of him, but cannot see the things
that are further away. What the Apostle obviously means therefore is that this
type of person does not see the ultimate end of the Christian life: he does not
see the final goal. He is a man who claims to have set out on a journey, but he
has forgotten where he is going; he has forgotten why he started out, and the
purpose he had in starting out. What is the goal of the Christian life? what
is it that we are ultimately attaining unto? what is our final goal and destiny?
There is no question about that in the New Testament. The object of it all is
that we may see God and enjoy Him for ever. Very well, says Peter, if that is
the ultimate goal, if you see that, as a Christian, the end you are ultimately
out to attain is to see God, and to spend eternity in His holy presence and
enjoy Him for ever, if you believe that, then this is the argument.

There are certain statements made about
that ultimate goal and objective, and here are some of them. `Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God.' I want to see God. Very well, what have
I to do? Purify my heart---it is inevitable. Or listen to the Epistle to the
Hebrews saying the same thing: `Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without
which no man shall see the Lord.' I want to see the Lord. Very well, says the
writer, follow after holiness, for without it no man shall see the Lord. Or
listen to John in his First Epistle saying the same thing again. `Every man that
hath this hope in him' (that is, of seeing Christ) 'purifieth himself, even as
he is pure.' That is the way the New Testament puts it. Do you say you want to
see God? Well, remember that God is holy and perfect and pure; and if you really
want to see Him you haven't a moment to spare, or a second to waste. Begin to
purify your heart. Be pure as He is pure. If you do not do these things, you
are short-sighted, you cannot see afar off, you are blind, you have forgotten
what you really set out to do.

But not only that, says Peter; such a man
has `forgotten that he was purged from his old sins'. In other words, he is a
man who not only cannot see forwards, he cannot see backwards either. I have no
doubt that when Peter wrote these words he was an old man. Perhaps he was
getting near the end of the journey in a physical sense, and it struck him as
being a very good analogy and illustration. A short-sighted man, he couldn't see
forward, and he couldn't see backward. `He has forgotten that he has been purged
from his old sins.' What does he mean by that? That he has forgotten the
initial purpose of the Gospel, he has forgotten the whole point of salvation!
Why did the Lord Jesus Christ ever come into this world? What is the purpose of
the Incarnation? Come back to the first chapter of Matthew and there you will
find the answer is given. `His Name shall be called Jesus.' Why? `Because he
shall deliver his people from their sins.' That is why He came. He would never
have left the courts of heaven but for that.Do I believe that Jesus of
Nazareth is the Son of God? Do I believe in the Incarnation? Do I see why the
Substance of the Eternal Substance vacated the courts of heaven and came on
earth? There is only one answer; He came to deliver His people from their sins.
Why did He die on that Cross on Calvary's Hill? What is the meaning of it? What
do the communion bread and wine represent? Why was His body broken and His blood
shed? Is it just a picture, is it just a dramatic incident? No, the purpose and
the object which He had in doing it has been stated once and for ever by the
Apostle Paul in the second chapter of the Epistle to Titus, and the fourteenth
verse, when he says that `He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from
all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.'
You believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God; you believe that He went
deliberately to that death on the Cross on Calvary's Hill? If you believe these
things, says Peter, the logic of it is this---if you believe that He humbled
Himself and divested Himself of the insignia of His Godhead, that He came and
shared the life of men and women, that He suffered the contradiction of sinners
for so long, that He was there in the garden sweating drops of blood, that He
endured the shame and the agony of the Cross that you might be delivered from
the power and pollution of sin, that you might be made perfect, spotless and
holy---if you believe that that is the background to and the beginning of
your whole position, there is only one thing to do, you must get as far away
from sin as you can, you must hate it. If you believe He delivered you from it,
how can you continue in it? You cannot! You must give all diligence to making
your calling and election sure. You must be anxious to furnish your faith with
virtue and knowledge, with temperance and patience, and all these other things.
The man who does not do that has forgotten that he has been purged from his old
sins; he has forgotten the whole purpose of the Incarnation and the humiliation
of Christ and the agony and the death on the Cross and the glorious
resurrection. He is utterly inconsistent with himself. He says he believes on
the Lord Jesus Christ in order that he may be delivered from his sin, and yet he
continues in sin. He is guilty even of making merchandise of the Cross of
Christ. Such a man has forgotten the very initial and fundamental purpose of the
Christian life.

But to proceed to the second
argument. Peter exhorts men and women thus diligently to make their
calling and election sure in that way, because to do these things produces an
active and a fruitful life. That is the message of verse 8. `For if these things
be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall be neither barren nor
unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.' Now it is generally
agreed that the word `barren' is a mistranslation. The margin in the Authorised
Version puts the right word---it is the word `idle'. If these things be in
you, they make you that ye shall neither be `idle nor unfruitful', etc. Now
that is the second reason for doing these things; and you see it is a positive
one. The trouble with so many of us Christians is that our Christian life is a
very idle one. We say we believe these things, but what do we do about them? We
are very active in connection with other things in which we believe; if it is a
club we take our part; if it is a game we enter into it wholeheartedly; if it is
business we put our energy into it. Yet, here, we claim that God is interested
in us, and that Christ has died for us---here we make the biggest claim a man
can ever make---but what are we doing about it? Is it leading to any sort of
activity?

I wonder how we fare when we compare
ourselves with our own forefathers? Sometimes I wonder whether the main
difference between the modern Christian and the Christians in the last century
is not just at this very point---that they were so active and we are so idle.
Those men believed in prayer meetings. They went to prayer meetings, and they
prayed; they had their fellowship meetings, their class meetings, their society
meetings. They wanted to talk about these things, about the spiritual life and
the problems of the spiritual life. They lived their Christian life; they
organised missionary societies. There was a great activity in their life. But
somehow the idea has crept in that to be a Christian means a general
subscription to certain views, and an occasional attendance at the House of God
and the means of grace. We sit and listen, we receive, but we do nothing---there
is no Christian activity in our lives. Let every man examine himself in the
light of this word.

`Very well,' says someone, `I do see that
and recognise it; I have to admit and confess that I am idle in my Christian
life. What have I got to do, what is your exhortation to me, that I may get rid
of this spirit of idleness that seems to have descended upon me?' Now here the
Apostle has something very important and vital to say. Peter at this point
states that activity must always be the result of character; and that is a very
fundamental distinction. We must be something and become something before we do
anything. Let us not misunderstand the Apostle's exhortation here. He is not
just exhorting us to be rushing ourselves into activity. Neither Peter nor
anybody else in the New Testament ever believed in mere bustling and busy-ness,
and rushing hither and thither in order that we may be very active. That is not
the New Testament's appeal at all. The New Testament is not interested in
activity for its own sake. The New Testament is not interested in mechanical
efforts and activities. In the church today we have multiplied our institutions
and our conferences, and there are people who are tremendously active; but it is
not the activity that is spoken of in the New Testament. The Apostle puts it
like this. He does not exhort these people to be busy in doing things; he
exhorts them and urges them to strive to become like Christ. That is how he puts
it. Beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue and to virtue
knowledge, etc. Then, he says, `If these things be in you, and abound, they make
you that ye shall not be idle.' You see how it works. Peter urges you to
concentrate on becoming a holy man, because if you become a holy man you will of
necessity become an active Christian. That is the difference between the true
Christian method and carnal busy-ness. We are to be diligent in the cultivation
of the virtues and graces of Christ, for if we do that, `if these things be in
you and abound, they make you that ye shall not be idle'. Your activity then
will be determined by the Holy Spirit and not by your own fleshly excitement,
not by your own nervous pressure, not by your own delight in being busy and
active. It will be the outcome of a nature like that of the Son of God Himself.
He went about doing good, He was what He was, and did what He did, because of
His holy nature; and you must be like Him, says Peter.

Then he goes on to show that this kind of
activity will be a fruitful one. That other type of activity, that mere
mechanical activism, is not very fruitful. Just look at it as regards the church
today. Look at the busy-ness and the organised activity of the church. But what
is it producing, to what is it leading? Though we have multiplied our
organisations and institutions, the number of church members is dwindling, the
number of people attending places of worship becomes less and less, and the
world is not better. The busy-ness is unfruitful; but if we indulge in true
Christian activity it will become fruitful as well. And it will be fruitful in
this way. If we concentrate on developing the Christian character we become
attractive to others. Men and women, when they look at us, will see good people
and holy people, and they will ask, `What is it that these people have got, why
are they so charming and attractive, what is this peace and composure they
possess, what is this atmosphere of holiness and goodness that we sense in them,
what is it that they have which we lack?' If we develop character, it will
draw. Not only that, it will make us sympathetic and understanding; we shall be
able to understand and consider their problems. In addition, it will give us
knowledge and understanding, and we shall be able to teach. When therefore they
come to us in distress and anguish of soul, we shall be able to give a reason
for the hope that is in us, we shall be able to guide them to Christ, we shall
be able to comfort their hearts with the promises of the Gospel.The man
who is busy in a carnal sense cannot do that; but the man who is truly Christian
is a man who has something to pass on. A Christian is one who is like Christ
Himself; and if we endeavour to develop the character of Christ, our lives must
become fruitful. We read of Him, `Then drew near unto him all the publicans
and sinners for to hear him.' The little children went to Him; the outcasts, the
distressed, went to Him, though He was sinless and spotless. What was it? Ah, it
was just His grace. And we are to be like that; and so we are to put our
energy into cultivating these graces. Then we shall not be idle, and our lives
will be fruitful even as His life was fruitful.

But that brings us to the last reason for
cultivating these graces, and this again, I would remind you, is positive. We
are to add to virtue knowledge, etc., for this reason, that it leads to a happy
and a glorious end to life. You see the Apostle's logic. It means that you start
in the right way, you are continuing in the right way, and it will mean that you
will end in the right way. If you only do these things, says Peter, you will
cover the whole of your life. As we contemplate this last argument we see once
more the utter folly of neglecting these things. We see once more how blind and
short-sighted the man is who does not give diligence to add to his faith virtue
and knowledge and other graces. What a short-sighted man he is! He has forgotten
the thing that is coming to meet him.

Once more I would say that there is
nothing perhaps which so tests and reveals exactly where we are and where we
stand as the way in which we face the end. The thing that ultimately is going to
test the value of our professed Christian faith is the way in which we face old
age, is the way in which we face death. Haven't you sometimes been rather sadly
disappointed when you have watched certain people in old age? It can be rather
tragic sometimes. Old age tests us, for when we enter that stage our natural
powers are failing. So many of us in this life and world live on our own
activity. That is why many a man dies suddenly after he has retired from
business; and often a wise doctor will advise such a man not to give up
altogether, but to go two or three times a week to his business. The man has
been living on his business, and after he has retired there is nothing to keep
him going. That also applies in connection with Christian work. A man may live
on his own preaching instead of on Christ, just as a man can live on his
business. But when old age has come he cannot do these things; his powers are
failing him, and he cannot appreciate the things of the world. And there he is,
left to himself! That is the test. How does one face old age, how are we going
to die? Well, says the Apostle, the man who adds to his faith is the man who
dies gloriously and triumphantly---`so an entrance shall be ministered unto you
abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ'.
You notice how Peter plays upon words. Take that word `ministered'; do you know
that that is exactly the same word as the word `add' in verse 5? 'Ministered'
unto you---if you do certain things an entrance shall be ministered unto
you---you minister these things, and this entrance will be ministered unto you.
You will die gloriously and triumphantly. How does it work? This is what Peter
says. When I come to be an old man, and when I come to die, if I am truly
Christian, death to me will be but an entrance, an entrance into a glorious
life. I can put that best by contrasting it with what Tennyson said. Do you
remember how Tennyson describes death? He puts it like this:

Sunset and evening star,

And one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning of the bar,

When I put out to sea.

No!---with the
greatest possible respect to the great poet---that is not Christian. The
Christian when he dies, does not cross the bar and set out to sea. No; it is
rather, as Charles Wesley put it:

Safe into the haven guide,

0 receive my soul at last

---that is the
Christian view of death. It is going home, it is entering into harbour, `An
entrance will be ministered unto you'. Not a setting out on to an uncharted
ocean, not going vaguely into some dim, uncharted world. Not at all, but an
entrance into the haven, going home. What does it all mean? It means that the
Christian dies like that because he knows God. He has striven diligently to know
Him better and better. He knows Christ. He knows where he is going. He does not
feel lonely as he is dying, because Christ is with him. He has promised, `I will
never leave thee, nor forsake thee', and `When thou passest through the waters,
I will be with thee'; and He is there. He does not feel a stranger, and he knows
something about the land to which he is going. He has been meditating upon it,
he has been looking at it by faith. He has been looking at `the things which are
unseen and eternal'; he has `set his affection on things above'. Therefore he
faces death and says, I am going home, I am going to be `with Christ which is
far better'. So the fear of death is gone---he does not object to going because
he knows exactly where he is going, and to whom he is going. He thinks also of
the `abundant' entrance. What
does that mean? It means something like this. The Christian who has responded
to Peter's appeal and who has been giving all diligence to living a full
Christian life, does not die full of regrets at his failures and shortcomings;
he is rather one who can say with Paul, as he views the end, `I have fought a
good fight, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown'.
That is the way the true Christian dies. He has been giving this diligence, he
has been living the life, so he does not feel guilty; he does not feel that he
has been wasting his time. He does not say, `If only I could go back, I would be
better'. There are no bitter regrets, he is sure of `the abundant entrance'. He
is not just saved `as by fire'.

And over and above that, he gets an
abundant welcome. He is met by the angelic hosts of heaven. He is like the man
Lazarus that our Lord spoke of. You remember the angels came and took him into
Abraham's bosom. That is how the Christian dies. You remember how John Bunyan
puts it. He describes Christian and Hopeful's going and he says that a multitude
of the heavenly hosts with harps in their hands met them, and sang songs which
no man could understand but those, and such as are thought worthy to be admitted
into that blessed place. The welcome of the angels and the glorified spirits!

But above all, as the Christian is
entering the harbour a voice says, `Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world---enter the joy of
your Lord.' That is how the Christian dies.
Don't you feel, as you hear that, that you want to say with one of old, `Let me
die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his'? Well, there is
but one way which guarantees the abundant entrance in the everlasting Kingdom.
It is this: `Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right
to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.' If
you want to have the abundant entrance furnished, ministered, unto you when you
come to die, give all diligence to furnish your faith with---or minister unto
your faith---virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly
kindness, love. You minister these, and the other will be ministered unto you.
[41-52]